Liberty Church Blackpool

Working with The Metropolitan Church Manchester

Liberty Church an inclusive church that welcomes
everyone who celebrates the diversity of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender people.

LGBT people can worship, grow in faith and develop their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in a supportive environment.

Liberty is a safe place. It means
that regardless of your sexuality you will be treated the same. You can
be straight, and even though in a minority
we will encourage you to leadership if you have the gifts. We won’t
clobber you with passages about how straight people should act, when you
commit adultery in thought or deed, nor talk about your sexual desire as
if it was your addiction. We won’t remind you that Paul has asked you to
make an effort to be celibate and you should all be trying until you’re
at least 40 to never have sex, before even thinking of marriage, and
express our disappointment at how abysmally you are failing at this.
Yes, that passage is for straight people, check it out. Instead, we will
offer to marry you and see it as a cause of celebration that you have
found someone to love. We will not stare when you show affection to your
heterosexual partner or have words with you afterwards.

We will not question the extent of your spiritually
on the basis of your sexuality. We will encourage you as straight people
to lift your head up and be proud that you are the person you are in
Jesus and we will not judge you at all because He isn’t judging us. We
will use inclusive words and allow for your sexuality as well as ours,
in our descriptions. Most of all we will say sorry for the damage we
have done to you by trying to encourage you to be perfect when we are
failing ourselves and remind everyone that we are all reliant on the
grace of Jesus.

If this can’t be offered to you, we are not
inclusive, and we will not call ourselves inclusive. Otherwise, you will
settle into church with enthusiasm, gradually realise that this is only
semi-acceptance and eventually leave rejected hurt and confused,
alienated further from God and with nowhere else to go.

Straight people feel surprisingly un-judged in
Liberty, and often express that this feels a safe space for them too. We
hope one day most churches will be truly inclusive for both gay,
straight, bisexual and transgender people.